Britain deserves better than the shabby cynicism of this Budget

The tax rises are almost wholly political in motivation

The crisis that confronts this country is on a scale almost unprecedented outside wartime. Only those who lived through the Great Depression have faced grimmer economic times. At such moments in national life, we look to government to rise above petty politics and to speak and act for the whole nation. Yesterday, we looked to this Labour Government for such leadership, but in vain. In a mean-spirited Budget that lacked honesty, fairness and vision, Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling were perfectly happy to play cheap partisan politics with the nation's future. They will not be forgiven for it. This was the moment Labour forfeited the respect of the country. By retreating to the failed policies of the 1970s, falling back on its core support and indulging in crude tribalism, Labour has finally broken with middle Britain, whose support has helped it to three consecutive terms in power. It will not happen a fourth time. If, yesterday, we were hoping for some wartime spirit, what we got instead was a declaration of class war.

Three weeks ago the Irish finance minister Brian Lenihan delivered an emergency budget that treated the voters like grown-ups. He made no attempt to gloss over the scale of sacrifice needed from everyone, politicians included. What a contrast to the Chancellor's lifeless recitation of a string of footling, inconsequential measures, and his stubborn refusal to admit any responsibility whatsoever for the cataclysm that has befallen us. When Mr Darling revealed the scale of indebtedness into which the Government is plunging us, he displayed the emotional intensity of the speaking clock. But the figures are truly shocking – the Government will borrow, this year and next, £348 billion which, as David Cameron pointed out, not only doubles the national debt but exceeds the total borrowing of all previous governments put together, over the past 300 years. It will not end there. Over four years the Government says borrowing will top £600 billion – many analysts expect it to be far higher. We will be saddled with this monstrous burden for decades.

If we were not to get any sign of contrition from Mr Darling for the Government's economic mismanagement – for only part of this train wreck can be blamed on the banking crash – we at least had a right to expect some inkling of how the Government intends to pay it off. This is where yesterday's statement became utterly unconvincing. First, Mr Darling defied credulity by asserting that an economy that will contract by 3.5 per cent this year (three times as big a shrinkage as he predicted just five months ago) will actually grow by 1.25 per cent next year. Such unrealistic guesswork is unforgivable. Next, he announced not cuts in public spending, but a lower rate of spending increase (after the next election, of course), which will save £10 billion over two years. If the situation were not so grave, such pitiful nibbling at Whitehall's bloated budget would be laughable. If Mr Darling were serious about getting better value for the taxpayer, he would have done something about the public sector's unaffordable pensions, but on this he was silent.

And then we had what he and Mr Brown clearly regarded as the pièce de résistance, the tax rises. These were no ordinary tax rises of the sort Mr Brown routinely, and stealthily, imposed when chancellor. These were high-profile, soak-the-rich tax rises that were almost wholly political in motivation, defying the Tories to oppose them and so be depicted as the toffs' party. Pitiful, is it not? The new top rate of 50p for those earning more than £150,000 will take effect next April, a cynical breach of Labour's 2005 manifesto commitment. The electorate can draw its own conclusions about how much trust it should place in the next manifesto. At the same time, those earning more than £100,000 will lose all personal allowances. Taken together, the measures will raise £7 billion.

Mr Brown has wanted a 50 per cent top rate of tax since before Labour was elected in 1997, but his hand was stayed by Tony Blair, who knew the importance of fair taxes to the aspirational middle classes. As Prime Minister, Mr Brown has finally got his way. No matter that when Nigel Lawson cut the top rate from 60 to 40 per cent in 1988, tax revenues increased sharply. No matter that in pushing the rate back up, enterprise will be stifled and wealth generators driven away. Such practical considerations have been eclipsed by sheer political opportunism. The shabbiness of yesterday's Budget does not end there. In cutting pension tax reliefs for thebetter off, Mr Darling risks turning all pension planning into a lottery because reliefs lower down the income scale will now be seen as fair game.

There was a clear sense yesterday of authority – if not yet power – shifting across the Commons from a worn-out and discredited Labour administration towards the Tories. Mr Cameron was excoriating in his contemptuous assault on this "government of the living dead". His party must now rise to the challenge posed by Brown/Darling cynicism.